The Author
M.C. Sungaila grew up in California and Michigan, and now lives in Orange County, California. She is an accomplished appellate lawyer, having been repeatedly named a “Notable Appellate Practitioner” by Chambers USA, Chambers & Partners (2013–2019), and recognized by the Daily Journal, Daily Journal Corporation as one of California’s 100 Leading Women Lawyers (2005, 2010–2018), and in 2015 as one of the state’s Top Labor & Employment Lawyers. She is the recipient of two back-to- back California Lawyer of the Year (CLAY) awards for precedent-setting California Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit decisions.
She is deeply committed to pro bono work, having served as counsel of record in one or more pro bono appeals each year for over 20 years, before the U.S. Supreme Court, international courts, and other intermediate appellate courts. At the age of 29, M.C. took on and helped win a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (a decision which reinstated a criminal civil rights verdict against a state court judge who had abused his power by raping and sexually assaulting female court employees and litigants). She has provided free representation in at least one appellate case a year since 1996, resulting in significant victories at the international, national, and state levels, including a decision in a case against Mexico before the Inter American Court of Human Rights for the disappearances and killings of women and girls in Ciudad Juarez that has been lauded as one of the most important women’s rights decisions in decades and the first to interpret a women’s rights treaty. She has also served on various nonprofit and bar boards for 25 years.
M.C. has been honored for her sustained commitment to community service and pro bono work, receiving recognition from groups as diverse as California Women Lawyers, Alpha Phi International Fraternity, the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association, Orange County Women Lawyers, the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, and Coastline Community College Foundation. In 2017, she was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, whose recipients include seven U.S. Presidents, Nobel Prize winners, athletes, leaders of industry, artists, and others whose work has made a lasting impact on humanity, for her combined professional achievements and humanitarian and pro bono work.
Her first nonlegal book, Mother's Thoughts for the Day®, was released in 2019.
